Fields of gold?

Within days of Parmar announcing his retirement, BCCI’s marketing spin twins spelled out their masterplan for domestic cricket: With their revenue expected to be somewhere between Rs 600-1,000 crore by year-end, domestic players could expect Rs 1 lakh to 1.5 lakh per game.

To put it in perspective, that’s roughly the amount Parmar will receive in his benevolent fund cheque after 18 years of service.

‘‘Right now a players earns about Rs 40,000 per Ranji game but after deduction he gets Rs 16,000 in hand for four days’ toil in the field’’, says Bindra. ‘‘From next year a player will be a lakhpati by playing just one Ranji game. That’s the minimum amount. It can go up to 1.5 since there a few contracts yet to be decided and we haven’t got an idea about the total revenue figure.’’

Suddenly, after weeks of blathering about multimillion-dollar deals, the Board has made one statement that really counted. Suddenly, the odds of a revival in domestic cricket were heavily cut.

Suddenly, the average cricketer could be professional in every sense of the word.

But isn’t that the case right now? Aren’t cricketers full-time into their sport? Back to Parmar and the Gujarat team, a perfect example of an average Ranji side. Their former skipper says that Parthiv Patel apart, not one cricketer has a job. ‘‘Gone are the days when banks and PSUs used to recruit in droves. Only the very best are picked, the rest survive on the Rs 16,000 per match and that’s not enough,’’ he says.

While it will be almost a new life for the average domestic player, there are those like Hemang Badani who will find it easier to deal with the sudden pay cut after being sidelined from the big league. ‘‘The sacrifices made by, and the workload on, an India player and a Ranji player are almost the same’’, Badani says. ‘‘When a player decides to take up cricket professionally the risk is the same. Not everybody can make it to the Indian team but in the present scenario the income disparity is shocking.’’

How shocking? ‘‘Even if a player played the Ranji final with 8 to 9 games the net figure comes to about Rs 10,000 a month. Yaar, dus hazar main kaun survive kar sakta hai?,’’ he answers, his voice rising in agitation.

So, in the days to come, the ‘take-home’ package will see a spike similar to the run graph when Sehwag and Dhoni are at the crease. Take upcoming batsman Niraj Patel as a case study. He doesn’t have an elite player contract and he wasn’t there in the list of probables. With the India line-up the way it is, there is no immediate entry to international cricket; a long domestic spell beckons.

Now, it seems much more palatable. This season Patel (24) has played in the Ranji, Duleep, Challenger and Irani competitions and is expected to figure in the Deodhar and Ranji one-day matches. At the end of it all he will net around Rs 3 lakh in cricket earnings—an income equal to a lower-middle-level employee.

If he can do the same thing next year, his income will be around Rs 20 lakh — a package that even a MBA contemporary will envy.

Here’s when cricket will become a career option (though, as the accompanying story shows, the middle-class mindset could prove as tough to breach as Dravid’s defence). A reasonably talented player could make a comfortable career out of cricket without ever making the national team.

And the widening talent pool can only be good for the game.

But this sudden overwhelming flow of money will not be without its attendant problems. ‘‘Money isn’t the only thing that matters, there is urgent need for other reforms too’’, says cricket historian Ramachandra Guha. ‘‘Top stars need to be seen more often on the domestic circuit. In Australia all the top players do that, so the youngsters get a chance to play against the top guys.’’

Another possible problem, he says, is that the Test discards will stick around even after their ‘sell by’ dates. ‘‘So we might have a 30-year-old former Test player playing Ranji Trophy as he expects to make about 15 to 20 lakhs per season. This will block the way for a promising youngster. The state associations have to deal with this quite brutally.’’

Badani raises another point. ‘‘With stakes rising so much there is the danger that the selection process is corrupted. If a certain amount of bias creeps it can spoil everything.’’

Indian cricket hasn’t always been comfortable with the colour green. Let’s hope with the changing order things will be different.

ONE TEAM, DOUBLE VISION

‘Cricket as a brand will improve’
IS Bindra
By a very conservative estimate the Board expects an annual revenue of about Rs 600 crores. That is four times what it was last year. We have prize money of Rs 1 crore for the Ranji champions. We have plans to give Rs 4 to 10 crore to associations to have stadiums of their own.

Subsidies for stadium upgradation and these things will mean a higher comfort level for fans. Nike will launch its merchandising marketing after the England series, that is something that the fans can look forward to. When we take control of production the game on television will be much more friendly. Cricket as a brand will improve now.

(Bindra is a member of the BCCI marketing committee)

‘The cricket itself should improve’
Dilip Vengsarkar
Money isn’t the main issue here. Even if a player gets Rs 1 crore for a Ranji match it does not really matter. The significant thing is that the standard of the game should improve. Though the Cricket Development Committee met, there are certain things in my mind that need to be addressed.

There is a lot one can do by the way of zonal academies. Talent can only be tapped through such cricketing infrastructure across the country. Junior cricketers should travel abroad more often. Beyond the junior level one needs to concentrate more on the India A tour.

(Vengsarkar is a member of the BCCI Cricket Development Committee)